One of the most common questions people ask me is, “What’s the difference between traditional therapy and hypnotherapy?” My answer? Well, hypnotherapy works.
What contributes to the success of hypnotherapy for addiction, weight loss, anger management, and more? It’s the way the sessions are structured, the overall approach, and the pacing—meaning the speed of results and the number of sessions. Let’s dive into these differences and see what makes hypnotherapy a preferred choice for so many people.
How Traditional Therapy Works
Structure
During a standard psychotherapy session, you go in week after week or month after month and talk about your problems with your therapist or counselor. You review things about your past and pinpoint what went wrong by honing in on certain traumatic events. Maybe you talk about failed past relationships that you can’t seem to get over, or perhaps you discuss the very first moment you felt a lack of confidence.
Following this structure can provide some key insights. For instance, you may now have the right terminology for your behavior (maybe you’re codependent) or finally recognize the root of where your confidence issues began (so it was that time you failed that test in third grade).
While knowing the technical names or the origin of what went wrong can be useful, traditional therapy leaves you hanging. You still have no idea how the hell to fix what it is that’s going wrong.
Approach
Most traditional therapists are very well-meaning and very well-trained in what they study. However, the foundational approach to traditional therapy starkly contrasts with hypnotherapy. Traditional therapy is based on specific assumptions of what will work for a client, which is why you often revisit past negative experiences for every session. The result? Staying stuck.
Talking about traumatic events or depressing situations session after session keeps you in that headspace. Think about it: if you hear a song associated with a past breakup or loss you experienced, that song will continue to remind you of that difficult time in your life, and the feelings you had during that event will stick around.
This foundational approach results in your never getting a chance to escape such difficult moments—because that’s all you’ve been focusing on. You’re continually looking at the past and dissecting what went wrong instead of focusing on how to move forward, to change, to become happier. You might even leave the sessions feeling worse than when your session started.
Pacing
The other notable difference between traditional therapy and hypnotherapy is the pacing. Traditional therapy assumes that it will take a long time for you to reach the end goal of fixing your problems or becoming happier. So, it maintains that expectation. For example, I’ve had clients who’ve attended traditional therapy for upwards of 20 years but have never felt like their sessions produced any effective results.
No one wants to stay in therapy forever. Even if you already know where your problems reside, why stay there?
How Hypnotherapy Works
Structure
Let’s start with an initial hypnotherapy session with a brand-new client. Maybe they’re a 50-year-old adult who lived through a childhood filled with abuse, which has caused self-esteem and confidence problems. Perhaps they’ve had little success in overcoming their issues, even after attending traditional therapy over the last decade so they want to try hypnosis for childhood trauma.
A hypnotherapy session may start with some basic questions about the past and what may have contributed to the challenges they are experiencing. Many clients find this easy to do, especially if they have spent time in traditional therapy.
After that initial review, the hypnotherapist will then move the client toward better thoughts and habits. After all, the client didn’t come to the hypnotherapist to change their past. They came because they wanted a better future. The hypnotherapist will guide the client through focused suggestions and recommendations to help them move forward in the most effective way.
Approach
Some hypnotherapists use NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) to establish forward motion. They take a deep dive into clients’ thoughts surrounding their challenges and start manipulating those thoughts to help the client overcome them. This may involve breaking down the pictures clients see in their heads and the words they hear related to their current challenge. By examining and manipulating these thoughts, the client can start to make changes at the foundational level.
The hypnotherapist can then reinforce those new thoughts by putting clients into a hypnotic trance, which elevates focus and concentration. When clients are in this state, they are more susceptible to therapeutic suggestions. As a result, they can begin making meaningful changes in their lives.
Hypnotherapists aren’t just rehashing old thoughts or trying to resolve every problematic issue in a person’s past. They’re helping clients change their thoughts, and that changes how they feel and act.
Pacing
These differences in hypnotherapy’s structure and approach then change the pace at which clients can experience noticeable changes. It is not uncommon for clients to overcome a bad smoking habit or rise above grief from a broken relationship in the first few sessions—even if they have been trying to work through these problems for years in traditional therapy without success.
Put It All Together
It’s important to note that hypnosis is not a panacea. It’s not a miracle cure or remedy that will fix any and every problem you’ve ever had. Instead, it’s using the right words or the right suggestions while you are in the right state of mind. If you want an efficient path to lasting change, you’ll need:
- An experienced hypnotherapist who knows the right questions to ask.
- To be open and honest with yourself and your hypnotherapist about what it is you want.
Once these conditions are met, the magic can happen. That’s when you will find that you are capable of quickly making the changes you desire within yourself on a subconscious level.
Try Pure Hypnosis Today
If you’re feeling stuck, it may be time to make the jump from traditional therapy to hypnotherapy, and Pure Hypnosis can help. We offer decades of experience helping clients find lasting results through the power of hypnosis. Whether you struggle with confidence issues, addictions, relationship challenges, or something else, we are here to guide you as you get “unstuck” and find maximum momentum toward healing and happiness.
